Enjoyed reading about Rebekah and Isaac in an historical fiction approach. However, it moved slowly because every possible thought process they may have had was included.

I thought OSC's take on the relationship between Isaac and Ishmael was well done and believable. It might not be true, but it might have been. It ended up being a pretty good story, and relatively faithful to the biblical drama.

It was too jarring to have the characters speak in contemporary language. I didn't buy it and I never got into the story because of it.

I love the Women of Genesis books and can't wait for the next one. I love historical fiction about scriptural people, particularly women because they are so rarely mentioned in the scriptures at all. Anyone who can help me to better understand or relate to women in the scriptures rocks. Also amazing that these books are written by a male author.

I enjoyed book #2 in this series. I liked the author’s version of what could have happened in between the lines of the Bible. Rebekah has always been as heroine of mine and I loved her story, and the love story between her and Issac.

Enjoyed it. Interesting view of the author about a few paragraphs in the bible.

As a readable entertaining piece of fiction 3 stars.

As an insightful biblical account 0 stars.

I had no expectations and so I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed my ride through this fictionalized version of the Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Esau story.

An easy predictable read.

Orson Scott Card is a gifted writer and he sets himself the task of exploring one of the more complicated characters in Genesis, a woman who played favorites with her children, deceived her husband, cheated one of her sons out of his inheritance . . . but Card says that he believes the story of Rebekah is the story of good people making bad decisions and he really gets into the character in some really compelling ways. He doesn't tweak the narrative from Genesis, but he brings Rebekah and a host of supporting characters vividly to life and tells the story in a very emotional way. I really loved it.

I think I enjoyed this book more than the first in the series. I felt like Rebekah was a more well-rounded character than Sarah was. I disliked the characterization of Isaac, but I appreciated that the author included the emotional struggle that is must have been for Isaac to deal with the fact that his dad was willing to sacrifice him. Even though he obviously understood the reasons for it and likely even agreed with them, it still had to hurt. I just felt that Isaac's lack of confidence was a little overdone. He and Rebekah had the same conversations over and over again. I think a few of those scenes could have been cut. It felt gratuitous. I did enjoy the way that O.S.C. resolved the issue of the birthright. I was wondering how Rebekah's actions would affect her relationship with Isaac. I'm glad that, in this version, he came around in the end. I like to think that it worked out that way.

I'm not a fan of the 5-star system. This book was good, and I really did enjoy reading Card once again, but I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as Sarah. I give this one about 6.5/10. I'm not really going to spoil anything since the Bible already says it, so...

The second book in the Women of Genesis series was very... long. As a novel, it sits at a comfortable 400 pages, which is reasonable to me. (Xenocide was over 800, which is where you push my patience.) It doesn't really drag, per se, the chapters are just needlessly long. I'm a grownup—I don't need Ben Bova chapter nibbles. But when the last chapter could easily break into four different parts, that's where I have an issue. You can't casually read this book, and it's probably why I didn't like it so much. May revisit later because of this.

We enter slight spoiler territory here, but it's really only for one character. Isaac was a little wimpy! It's like his entire character exists because Abraham turned into a jerk in extra-old age. Really makes me miss Sarah.
Isaac has the paradoxical attitude of being a weak man, and he's immovable on that topic. I don't think he ever really changes. It bugged me! I love the idea of showing Biblical figures as imperfect people. It's humanizing and brilliant. But with Isaac, he was just prideful and annoying. I'm sorry, but I really hate any character like this, especially when they get no resolution. It's what irked me about Docter Strange. And... yeah, I see how Scott tried to make him seem better, but it was too easy and didn't sit well with me.

The idea of everyone writing because of Bethuel's deafness was interesting! I'll admit I didn't quite see it being realistic because of how fast they must have been at writing in the dirt, but I can let that go.

In simple conclusion, Rebekah was a great book. Didn't love it as much as Sarah,
but that that book is one of my favorites anyway. Give it a read if you enjoyed Sarah, but pass it if you didn't.

Another excellent read

I have to admire Card's ability to weave an incredible story using just the threads still available. This was even better than Sarah ~ a bold woman who was entirely human while living totally within her faith. Even a family devoted to God is far from perfect and the story fits in today's world. I'll read the next book too!